Ted Cruz: Syria, Obamacare ‘tied’

Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday tied Obamacare and Syria together, saying the two issues are linked “by an arrogance of this administration.”

The Texas Republican told radio host Rush Limbaugh that it’s clear by the way President Barack Obama and his administration approaches Obamacare and the conflict in Syria that “they don’t believe they’re accountable to the American people.”

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“Fundamentally, actually, these two issues, you look at Syria, you look at Obamacare,” Cruz said, according to a transcript on Limbaugh’s site. “They’re tied together. They’re tied together by an arrogance of this administration, that they don’t believe they’re accountable to the American people, and they are going to jam their agenda down the throats of the American people.”

And both cases can be solved in one way, according to Cruz: “The American people have to rise up and hold every elected official accountable.”

“And on both of them, the answer is the same as it was on guns; it’s the same as it is on stopping amnesty, which is the American people have to rise up and hold every elected official accountable, Democrat and Republican,” he added. “Every one of us, including me.”

Limbaugh replied that “the American people ought to have a political party that’s willing to stand up and join them in stopping this, too, and right now, they don’t think they do. They’ve got you, they got [Utah Sen.] Mike Lee, a couple or three others. Everybody else they see is caving.”

“Well, I agree,” Cruz said. “Sadly, right now, the people who are leading the fight to stop the effort to defund Obamacare are Republicans. It’s not Democrats. That’s a sad state of affairs. I hope it changes. I hope the Republicans stop trying to prevent us from defunding Obamacare and, instead, we come together — and the only way they will is if millions of Americans go to DontFundIt.com, speak up and demand that our elected officials listen to the people.”

As for possibility of military action in Syria, Cruz blasted Obama as “an out-of-control president” who has had an “imperial” and “lawless” presidency.

“Right now, in the U.K., they’re having an emergency session of parliament to consider Syria,” Cruz said. “In Israel the Knesset is considering an emergency session and yet President Obama apparently wants to go to the UN but can’t be bothered to go to United States Congress or the American people and make the case. Look, you know, the authority to declare war rests in Congress, not in an out-of-control president.”